Functional Principle

Drift Chamber Detector

Schematic of the droplet shaped (A)
and round (B) SDDs used by Bruker

Silicon drift detector (SDD) technology for commercial X-ray spectrometry was introduced by Bruker. The SDD is a type of energy dispersive solidstate detector. It utilizes a special drift field structure to guide charges produced by absorbed X-rays to an extremely small readout anode. The structure is optimized for each type of SDD – smaller droplet (A) and larger round detector (B) – for efficient charge transportation.

Additionally, the XFlash® uses an on-chip amplifier to achieve energy resolutions suitable for EDS element analysis with only moderate cooling, achieved with thermoelectric Peltier coolers. The drift fields, the low capacitance of the readout anode, and the integrated FET ensure the excellent energy resolution and high speed of Bruker’s detectors.